It is desirable to automatically play video clips such as medical image sequence clips accessed by a workstation, for example, if workstation hardware is able to support such automatic play and display. In existing systems automatic video clip playback is typically implemented by software or hardware functions. A software video clip playback function typically provides a user with limited playback capabilities. Existing software video clip playback functions automatically play one video clip at a time and do not efficiently use available system resources. Such existing software functions may not be able to maintain a video play frame rate during playback or may omit frames resulting in erratic or discontinuous playback.
A hardware video clip playback function typically employs specialized video hardware to provide a user with improved video playback performance compared to a software video playback function. However, hardware playback functions may require additional image storage and processing memory or may be constrained by limited available memory for use with the video playback hardware. A problems.